[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 71 (Tuesday, May 22, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5484-S5485]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             BIPARTISANSHIP

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, we voted on 3 amendments last week, 17 
amendments yesterday, 27 amendments today. That is an awful lot of 
amendments on a bill that should have been done after 20 hours, plus a 
few votes.
  We have had a flood of amendments, and almost all of them have come 
from the other party. Not one amendment from the other party has passed 
yet. That is after 3 last week, 17 yesterday, and 27 today. When is 
enough enough?
  I ask this question in the spirit of bipartisanship that Senator 
Baucus and I have worked on since the first of the week and the entire 
work of the Senate Finance Committee, in the spirit of how the Finance 
Committee has always worked, and also in the spirit of the 
bipartisanship talked about 5 months ago in the new Congress. Why in 
the new Congress? Because it is the first time in 120 years the Senate 
has been evenly divided.
  I hope that bipartisanship is not dead. But if bipartisanship is dead 
and buried within the last 5 months of this new Congress, I have not 
been invited to the funeral, and I don't think Senator Baucus was 
invited either. Senator Baucus and I have been working on this tax bill 
since January. That was right around the time the leaders of this body 
worked out power sharing. We all knew from the beginning that shared 
power brings shared responsibility. Where is the responsibility to get 
the people's work done? Where is the responsibility to finish 
legislation that has been worked upon for months by a committee of this 
Senate, one of the most powerful committees of this Senate? Where is 
the responsibility to finish legislation that is the product of the 
bipartisanship that is known to be a product of the Finance Committee 
or the bipartisanship that was asked for in January? Where is the 
responsibility to finish legislation that has ample bipartisan support 
to pass?

  When this bill finally gets to that final rollcall vote, people are 
going to be shocked how many people are going to vote for this bill on 
final passage. Bipartisan, again.
  Then, in the meantime, we are putting up with 27 rollcalls today, 17 
rollcalls yesterday, 3 rollcalls last Thursday. Three long days of work 
on this bill, and we still do not see light at the end of the tunnel 
because there are stalling tactics that for some reason or another go 
beyond the protection of a minority within the Senate.
  I don't argue with that protection of the minority. There is only one 
political institution in the United States Government where minority 
views are protected. Those are in the Senate of the United States. 
There are all sorts of rules to protect the minority. But there also 
can be abuse of the protection that is granted the minority, way beyond 
what was ever intended by the people who wrote our Constitution or 
established the traditions and the rules of the Senate. There is a time 
when statesmanship has to be above pure politics meant to kill tax 
relief for American taxpayers, a tax relief that is the third greatest 
in the last 50 years and the greatest in the last 20 years.

[[Page S5485]]

  There has to be a time when examples of bipartisanship have to be 
followed by those who are calling for bipartisanship. I think Senator 
Baucus and I have established a good tradition of bipartisanship, a 
tradition of bipartisanship that I hope will not only help get a 
bipartisan vote on this bill tomorrow or the next day, a bipartisan 
vote on a product coming out of conference but, more importantly, as I 
said in my opening remarks last Thursday on this bill, a bipartisanship 
that will continue for many important issues that this Senate has to 
work on the rest of this year and next year. There is a long list of 
trade legislation our committee must produce. There is the issue that 
was most important in the Presidential campaign of both candidates: 
prescription drugs for seniors and how that impacts upon the whole 
Medicare program. There are the problems of dealing with the uninsured, 
the people who do not have health insurance. That is something that was 
involved in candidate Gore's campaign and Candidate Bush's campaign 
with which we must deal.

  There are issues of helping with tax incentives for people to save 
and to have better opportunities for pensions. There are the issues 
dealing with tax credits for higher education and the issue of 
education savings accounts.
  You can go on and on. But most of the major issues were part of the 
Presidential campaign, and for the most part to some degree or another 
were part of the campaigns of each candidate for President in the last 
election. Consequently, they have a right to be on the agenda. We have 
a responsibility to make sure they are not only on the agenda but are 
carried out.
  So I hope what Senator Baucus and I have been working on since the 
first of the year will help produce further agreements. Some of them 
may be even more important than this tax bill.
  I yield the floor.

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